


PSA for Genosha: Textbooks Will Be Free

by FourAlignments, Quill18



Series: Tikkun Olam - Genosha [14]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Author is not a happy bunny, Gen, Genosha, The Author Regrets Nothing, after the shitty experience the author had in a class, emotional catharsis, or shitty professors, students should not be screwed over by overpriced textbooks, who do not give a damn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:28:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24379465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FourAlignments/pseuds/FourAlignments, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quill18/pseuds/Quill18
Summary: In which Magneto is embarrassed by a scandal in the Genosha's University System, that never should have happened under his leadership.For Reference sake:  University System is used to refer to the policy and practices of integrated administration and infrastructure of the universities within the country.
Series: Tikkun Olam - Genosha [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1412305
Comments: 7
Kudos: 8





	PSA for Genosha: Textbooks Will Be Free

**Author's Note:**

> But, I must admit I wrote in a fit of rage against my professor and that class in general and I had to get my emotions out somehow to get some form of emotional catharsis. Because I don’t think I could have written any of my Dadneto content if I hadn’t process my emotions. 
> 
> Personally, I can deal with a lot of bullshit, because I had to deal with some terrible roommates, but that’s a story for another time and I'll probably write a one-shot inspired by that. So I have a high bullshit meter and I don’t get angry that often and I don’t like being angry because it is very draining on myself. But, if you poke me with a stick long enough and on a constant basis, I will charge you with my horns. 
> 
> I think this clip from Big Fat Liar best describe how I was feeling at the time at which I wrote this piece:  
> https://youtu.be/YGH2KMFgd1Q
> 
> Amanda Bynes: Me  
> Frankie Muniz: The other leaders within the GroupChat  
> Paul Giamatti: The Professor  
> The crowd: The rest of my class in said GroupChat 
> 
> This is directed at Quill18, I am perfectly OK and alright with you making this piece be part of Voices of Genosha Canon. You are actually the one, who inspired me to write in this PSA format in the first place. In addition you are the one who suggested I publish this on Ao3.
> 
> 6/8/20 Update from Quill18: This is now part of the Tikkun Olam: Genosha canon. I did some minor editing.

Transcript:

Citizens, residents, and visitors; I have an announcement to make. Teachers and professors are key members of Genoshan society. Not only are they role models to the community, but teach our children and students. So they become prepared for life and necome well informed active participants within our political process. To stimulate young minds to yearn to learn more about the world and to wonder about it. To pass on knowledge from previous generations and the struggle about our kind, the hardship and oppression, and our accomplishments and triumphs.

So here in Genosha we value our teachers.

However, this is not one of these times.

It has come to my attention by my son Pietro; that unfortunate incident has occurred, that an individual has been taking advantage as their role as a professor at our University System; and has been using their role as a professor to line his own pockets off of one of Genosha’s most vulnerable populations: Students.

Despite the fact, of just how revered professors and teachers in our society and how Genosha repays our teachers with a sizable salary of 200,000 in the Genoshan currency; along with a national holiday to celebrate teachers within our society. And yet it isn’t enough for him to make and having the honor of tenure at Genosha’s most highly esteemed Universities.

He made his own textbook; two textbooks to exact.

Now this on its own is not a problem in its own right. Many of Genosha Universities’ departments within the STEM field like biomedical engineering and math; do sometimes feel the need to produce their own textbooks for the advanced materials that they are covering in their upper division classes. After all the material may not be found, nor covered at the desired length via the existing textbooks on the market. 

In addition, many professors do publish their research in peer-reviewed articles. In such in academia, theses articles are bundled into books; but a series of essays on a topic. If a professor sees fit, that the articles that they published is related to topics covered in a class as long as the professor divests from the royalties made; and the series of articles can be rented.

The examples I just gave, I have no problems with. (Verbal sigh)

However, what have a problem with and consider unethical for a professor to do and cause of this service announcement: is what this professor did. He wrote a textbook. A textbook, that wouldn’t pass academic scrutiny by his fellow professors within his own department and I doubt it would pass the scrutiny of those in his field of marketing.

A textbook that had spelling and basic conceptual errors within several chapters. For instance, mistakenly believing range and variance are the same concept within the statistics chapter. A mistake so moronic, that a freshman student that has just taken intro to statistics could tell you is wrong. This mistake should not have been made in the first place because he could simply email a statistics professor or looked it up on the internet or any other tools at this professor disposal. This is unacceptable.

To make matters worse for the students, the textbook wasn’t comprehensible due to the professor’s wording and it made it harder for the student to actually learn the concepts as it was difficult to understand. In addition, the textbook was his opinion on the material without other points of view. If a Wikipedia page can better explain these topics in a more fluid and direct manner; then perhaps this professor should go back and tried again on writing the textbook properly.

(Sigh)

And another example of this professor’s incompetence is the website that hosted this classes chapter questions didn’t even work as there were multiple errors in regards to the test bank. Questions that the students got correct were marked wrong and this professor was emailed multiple times to fix these errors. And there is a suspicion, that this has happened before and yet, he didn’t fix the problem or used an alternative hosting site like the university’s bought and paid for online learning management platform that already has quizzes and exam templates with ease of use.

The outrageous and scandalous part of this whole incident was that these textbooks were a grand total of a thousand dollars in a class that most students had to take within the school of business, where the class size was five hundred with multiple sections, as many as six or seven hundred; all using the exact same textbook. The students did not have the ability to rent their own textbooks.

So, he was making money off the backs of his own students. He used this money for lavish trips to Europe, buying horses, and living an extravagant lifestyle.

However, the most egregious part of this scandal, instead of divesting himself from this, as he should have done. It instead corrupted him and affected his teaching within the class, which is what the people of Genosha originally paid him for. There are several reports of students; where before Midterms, barely showing up to class to teach; canceled a week of class because he was “busy”, it should be noted that this was two weeks before Midterms; during a midterm review session, he yelled and patronized the class for not writing down questions, but not explicitly stating that his students had to write down their questions on sheets of paper;

Which is quite unfair to students with accommodations for their disabilities, or students who are struggling in his class and having a hard time understanding the material or the commuter students, who might have spent an hour to forty-five minutes, for only not get help and having class for ten to five minutes; He might as well have canceled class. During a short summer semester, he took a week long trip to Europe. This is conduct unbecoming of a tenured professor.

I am pleased to say, actions have been taken to take care of this matter and to make sure this never happens again in Genoshan society.

The professor in question as been fired from his tenured position and has been barred from ever teaching in Genosha. We have informed other universities around the world to this fraud’s activities, so this never again happens to another student. He has since decided to move to another country.

The state of Genosha has filed a lawsuit against him for damages against the students, who he stole from in past semesters. For the students that just recently taken his class, Genosha will reimburse them for the money spent on the textbooks and for the class itself.

An external audit and investigation will be underway to this University’s Marketing department to see if this fraud goes higher up in the department; if it is found, they will be properly punished as well. This investigation will also uncover to see if the program meets Genosha’s education standards.

And from now on, textbooks will be free. All textbooks will be opened sourced on each University’s website, when a student is enrolled. If a student wants a physical version, then Genosha will supply students with money to pay for them.

To help further this effort, the government of Genosha will pass laws forbidding publishing companies for making students pay for access codes for which they have already spent public money on the institution; which has price gouged the student. If they fight back against theses simple rules and given the fact these companies, who know about the difficulty of the students, and yet do nothing for them, but price gouge them; they will fight back. Then Genosha will simply nationalize the industry; so, the people of Genosha will set the price for textbooks.

If a professor wants to write his or her own textbook, then it must pass a rigorous academic standard and judgment by their peers; and if there is some suspicious activity, like for instance bribery, then a new panel will be brought in. If the textbook does not pass, it will not be used, and if it does, the students will know that the textbooks purchased are verified and a good source to learn from.

Genosha.

We Protect Our Own.

**Author's Note:**

> There's actually a part 2 to this story: 
> 
> So in an effort to stop people from cheating on the final because it was online, the professor announced that he was making 150 new questions for the final. Rendering the online work we did moot and it didn’t help matters that there were multiple spelling mistakes and were worded weirdly, confusing the class. I do consider myself to be lucky because I got four hours to do my exam because of ADA, so I get accommodations; but I still found it difficult to do in the time allotted and I got burned out at one point and had to stop. I couldn’t imagine what my classmates were going through because they only got half my time and were even more stressed than I was. I am thankful I got out with a 71 on that darn exam. However, as a result of the exam nearly all of the class failed. 
> 
> I consider that to be failure on the professors part; that you made an exam so hard, so not understandable that you basically set them up to fail. Perhaps, he should have taken the exam in the time...And it’s not like this a STEM course like bio-chem or biology, where you aspect to have lower passing averages for those courses, but this is a marketing class. 
> 
> So many of us failed, that he had to put a large curve on our exam and in addition he lowered (lower-end) percentile on the A-F spectrum to give us another curve. I wouldn’t be surprised if did this not to be investigated by the University on the pass/fail rate of the class. But that’s is the definition of fail. 
> 
> So I am out with an A, surprisingly. 
> 
> As a class, on GroupMe, a rallying cry went out and many concerned students in class sent out emails to the dean of the college and the department head about this incident. I just feel like I just learned this man’s opinion on marketing. 
> 
> I am a college student, who just doesn’t want to be fucked over, is that too much to ask?
> 
> Please note this was an open book exam, but the students in my class only got 80 seconds of time per question to answer them; kind of rendering the open book portion kinda of moot. 
> 
> Continuing with the Big Fat Liar clips, I want some justice to be served and to make sure this doesn't to other students at my university. This damages the reputation of the university. 
> 
> https://youtu.be/VjfjS0R1bdk
> 
> And if there are any Master's, PhD, or plain old professors reading this. Please know that your students don't want to be bullshitted or taken advantages of. Please treat your students with respect and dignity. please give a damn about what your teaching. Then your students will treat you with you with respect. 
> 
> But, I do want to thank the readers, who have made to this point and listened to my personal woes. 
> 
> Give Kudos, leave a comment because they make my day just a bit brighter. 
> 
> Are there any stories of terrible classes or professors that you wish to tell? Then Just comment down below, it can be very cathartic.


End file.
